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MORE PEOPLE BIKING
MORE OFTEN
Standing Committee on Infrastructure Renewal & Public Works
2015 City of Winnipeg Budget
March 16, 2015
New Funding for Active Transportation
Bike Winnipeg is pleased to see increased funding for active transportation in the City of Winnipeg’s 2015
Preliminary Capital Budget. For the 45% of Winnipeg residents who want to cycle more often and the 49%
who would like to walk more often, the healthy transportation options provided by this increased investment
will be a welcome addition. It is particularly pleasing to see funding for the second phase of the southwest
rapid transit corridor and Pembina Underpass, which will allow for the completion of a separated active
transportation route stretching from Lord Roberts/Fort Rouge into the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry
Campus. We thank the mayor, councillors and administration for making this happen.
Yet even with this increased investment, funding for active transportation will only reach about 1/3rd of the
amount deemed necessary to complete the walking and cycling networks envisioned in the City’s draft
Pedestrian & Cycling Strategies released last fall. To provide the kind of safe, comfortable, connected
networks that will encourage people to walk and bike much more often, a much bolder investment will be
required. Worldwide, cities with the vision to make significant investments in the walkability and bikeability of
their neighbourhoods are seeing rates of walking and biking skyrocket. That leads to a more livable city that
attracts and retains youth and entrepreneurs, builds wealth, and creates jobs.
In Our Winnipeg, the City of Winnipeg committed itself to create a transportation system that supports active,
accessible and healthy transportation options for its citizens. Adoption and implementation of the Pedestrian
and Cycling Strategies is a necessary investment if we are to reach this important goal.
While we recognize that the city is in a tight financial situation, we feel strongly that the city must commit
itself to full funding of the pedestrian and cycling strategies as a means to reach financial sustainability and
begin to reverse the city’s infrastructure deficit.
We sincerely hope that the mayor and council will consider the full range of financial options available and set
in place a firm plan to include a plan to fully fund the pedestrian and cycling strategies in the 2015 budget and
five year forecast.
Planning
It has been almost a full year since the draft pedestrian and cycling strategies were released to the public for comment,
yet we have still not had a chance to see final recommendations from the city administration. As a result, timelines for
passage and implementation of the strategies remain unknown, and we are faced with another budget year where we
lack the ability to verify that plans for major roadway rehabilitations meet city policy to include needed improvements to
accommodate people walking or cycling in accordance with proposed pedestrian and bicycle networks. Clearly, we need
to be putting more resources into the planning of our pedestrian and cycling strategies. We are recommending that
three new staffing positions be added over the 2015-2020 period covered by the 2015 Budget and five year forecast to
ensure that implementation of the pedestrian and cycling strategies moves forward in a timely manner. Having staff in
place to manage implementation of the strategies will ensure that we are not missing opportunities to include needed
pedestrian or cycling infrastructure as part of ongoing street renewal projects, and that new developments are planned
in a manner that extends these networks as our city grows. Savings from project integration would more than make up
for new staffing.
Infrastructure Priorities
Assiniboine/Forks Connection
This summer, The Forks are planning to add a protected bike lane along Fort Gibralter that will provide a quality
bicycle corridor into the Forks from Main Street. This will leave just a small gap between the existing protected
bike lanes on Assiniboine Avenue and this new bikeway. We are asking the city to make closure of this gap its
number one priority for spending from the Bicycle Corridors line item.
Downtown Protected Bike Lanes
The painting of bike lanes on Winnipeg’s downtown streets, which started in 2009, helped start Winnipeg’s slow
march towards bikeability. And while this has encouraged an increasing number of people to use their bikes to
reach their work, shopping, or entertainment destinations downtown, for many people the level of comfort and
protection provided by a painted bike lane falls well short of the threshold that would convince them to
abandon their car and ride their bikes downtown.
Parking protected bike lane on Sherbrook
Fully 47% of people surveyed as part of the pedestrian and cycling strategy stated that the addition of protected
bike lanes on main streets would encourage the to bike more or much more often. The city’s experience with
the protected bike lanes on Assiniboine has shown that the pattern of seeing significant increases in the number
of cyclists on roads where protected bike lanes are installed will be matched in Winnipeg.
3rd Floor, 303 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3B 2B4 · Ph: 204-894-6540 · [email protected]
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· www.bikewinnipeg.ca
Following the installation of a two-way protected cycle track on Assinniboine Avenue in 2010, regular counts of
cycling traffic have shown that the number of cyclists traveling down Assiniboine has increased by more than
200%. Clearly, Winnipeg residents have been encouraged to switch to their bikes where protected bike lanes are
provided.
Bicycle Traffic on Assiniboine Ave has increased by over 200% since a protected cycle track was installed in 2010.
Given the importance of Winnipeg’s downtown as an employment, education, shopping and education destination, the
downtown protected bike lanes need to be planned as the highest priority in the city’s cycling networks implementation
plan.
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Highlights
o Build a new protected bike lane on York Avenue
o Upgrade from painted bike lanes to protected bike lanes on
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Fort Street
 Garry Street
 Hargrave Street
 Carlton Street
 Bannatyne Avenue
 McDermot Avenue
 St. Mary Avenue
o Compliments the existing protected lanes on Assiniboine
3rd Floor, 303 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3B 2B4 · Ph: 204-894-6540 · [email protected]
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· www.bikewinnipeg.ca
University of Winnipeg Connectivity
The U of W Connectivity Improvements project will build a set of short bikeways and modify intersections on or around
the University of Winnipeg to remove barriers and improve connectivity into and through the University of Winnipeg
Campus.
The project will make use of innovative designs to connect bike routes to the west, south and northeast of the University
of Winnipeg campus. With over 10,000 students (16% of whom bike to the campus), the development of quality
connections into the University of Winnipeg campus will be a tremendous benefit to the city’s bicycle network.
Bikes parked outside the U of W
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Highlights
o Creates a connection to Spence Street & St. Mary Avenue
o Creates a connection to Qu’Appelle via Ellice, Spence and Isabel
 Links to the Hargrave Carlton Bike Lanes
o Creates a Connection between St. Mathews and the U of W Campus
3rd Floor, 303 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3B 2B4 · Ph: 204-894-6540 · [email protected]
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· www.bikewinnipeg.ca
Winter Maintenance
While the 2011 Transportation Master Plan calls for “AT networks to be planned, designed, implemented and
maintained to address year-round access”, implementation of this policy has been inconsistent. Bike Winnipeg calls for
the following policies to be adopted to ensure that Winnipeg’s snow clearing policy is aligned with the direction set out
in the city’s Transportation Master Plan.
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All AT routes should be moved up to priority #1 or priority #2 routes. Bike boulevards may be exceptions if they
are not currently on snow routes. (See below for their treatment.)
Where bike lanes are present, roadways should have priority #1 street clearing, and they should be cleared curb
to curb, down to the pavement.
Where bike lanes are next to parking, effort should be made to clear the boulevard so that car doors can be
opened. (If car doors cannot be opened, cars will encroach on the bike lanes.) It was noted that Grosvenor Ave
was a good example of where this had been done in previous years.
Bike Boulevards: Where it is not a priority #1 or #2 roadway, we would want to see more frequent checking of
the roads so that ruts could be removed and more frequent sanding. This may mean these roads are cleared
outside of a city-wide clearing.
Snow should be removed from shy lanes on bridges within 48 hours of cessation of the snow event. A benefit of
this is that all users of the bridge will be safer, as snow removal protects against the ramp effect. We would also
like to see the shy lanes cleared of debris on a regular basis in summer as accumulation is a problem. Bridges
that were specified as highest priority were: Osborne, St. Vital, Chief Peguis, Slaw Rebchuck,
Mayland/Sherbrook, Norwood, Charleswood, Fort Garry, and Louise (sidewalks) Bridges.
There should be extra funding to conduct snow clearing of bike paths on an ad hoc basis as required between
snow events in the case of ice build-up, particularly ice ridges. Ice buildup occurs on bike paths as a result of
freeze/thaw events that pool melt water on the paths. Regular inspections can be used to determine when such
measures are necessary.
Community Based Travel Marketing
Bike Winnipeg would like to see the city move forward on its commitments to transportation demand management
made in the 2011 Transportation Master Plan. Research has shown that when coupled with individualized marketing
programs such as the community based travel marketing pilot program undertaken as part of the WinSmart project,
shifts to sustainable modes of transportation have been far higher than would otherwise have been realized (for
instance, a Portland study showed that areas targeted for individualized marketing after installation of a new rapid
transit line saw four times the reduction in driving trips compared to areas that were not targeted by individualized
travel marketing).
Sincerely
Mark Cohoe,
Executive Director
Bike Winnipeg
www.bikewinnipeg.ca
204-894-6540
3rd Floor, 303 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3B 2B4 · Ph: 204-894-6540 · [email protected]
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· www.bikewinnipeg.ca